Legend of the Cyber Heroes
Chapter 636 - 280: The Business Wisdom of the Xiang Family, Part Two

Chapter 636: Chapter 280: The Business Wisdom of the Xiang Family, Part Two

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Regarding Novich’s question, Xiang Shan smiled and said, "What do you think about having some preliminary matches?"

Preliminary matches, also known as "warm-up matches," are used to liven up the atmosphere before the main events.

Of course, they might also serve to fill the duration of the event.

After all, professional matches that go the full number of rounds are quite rare in terms of endurance. Take Tyson’s fights for example, if the main event started right away, the whole thing could be over in just a few minutes. That way, tickets might not sell that well.

In some professional leagues, preliminary matches wouldn’t even be broadcasted.

Generally speaking, lower-ranked fighters or newcomers without any rankings would be arranged to fight in preliminary matches. Their matches are typically of less interest to the public. The level of skill in preliminary matches is lower, and they are less exciting than the main events.

However, things aren’t always so clear-cut.

Boxing Kings who are Just Starting Out sometimes begin with preliminary matches. Some lower-ranked but promising fighters participating in preliminary matches also attract attention.

But in most cases, people are more interested in the main events.

Xiang Shan is considering putting some robots in the preliminary matches... It seems not entirely out of the question?

However, Novich is somewhat worried, "But isn’t the preliminary match the biggest hope for some of the lower-tier fighters? Many of them can only fight in two preliminary matches a year."

Xiang Shan spread his hands, "As a preliminary to the preliminary matches, adding them in between the regular bouts is not impossible. Anyway, I just need these robots to get in the ring and box. Moreover, our company could also finance and hold special commercial sports events exclusively for the AI from the various Boxing Gyms to compete in—of course, under the precondition that my AI can attract attention in the major professional leagues of the fighting world."

After some thought, Novich felt this was quite feasible. At the very least, the professional leagues didn’t have many reasons to object.

But he still had some unanswered questions.

"If a Boxing Gym buys a machine and then uses it exclusively for the top fighters within the gym, without letting the average members use it, would that reflect the overall level and teaching strength of the gym?"

Xiang Shan replied, "That’s easy to solve. We just need to set a sampling time, where an AI from a Boxing Gym will only collect a few hours of sample data from any user on a daily basis. Then we could make rules that a certain number of people must provide training data to the AI, or we could simply categorize them by weight class, such as ’Star Fighter’s Personal AI’ would be heavyweight, ’Boxing Gym’s Professional Fighters’ Common AI’ would be middleweight, ’For Amateur Members to play with’ would be lightweight. Just establish the corresponding rules."

"How about if a Boxing Gym trains different robots?"

Xiang Shan sighed, "Coach Novich, the point is the AI, the software. The data from all the robots within a club can be shared."

Novich fell into thought once again.

Then, he nodded, "That should be doable."

The old man immediately understood why Xiang Shan wanted him for this job. He was a well-known coach in the circle who had mentored champions and Boxing Kings and had connections with various renowned training camps.

Having him as a salesman would be more effective than if the company itself approached clients.

Still, the old coach had his own principles, "I must train Lu for a while here to see the results first."

Xiang Shan nodded, "There’s no rush. I was also hoping you’d see the results. This can be done during the period you’re training Lu Xuanyu."

Coach Novich felt somewhat melancholic, "Now, it might be even harder for fighters in poor economic conditions to get ahead."

"Ah ha!" Xiang Shan laughed, turned around, picked up a well-packaged gadget from the desk, and unwrapped it, "I’ve already thought of that. The blessing of the Industrial Revolution lies in its universality."

It was a pair of smart glasses. Xiang Shan touched the rim of the glasses and whispered, "Visitor mode, initiate Bluetooth connection, search for devices labeled ’Xiang Shan,’ password 0505... okay, allow unknown devices to connect. Trust mode. Start ’AR Fight Star Training alpha’ with high quality..."

After setting it up, Xiang Shan tossed the gadget to Coach Novich, "This is a welcome gift for starting your job. It contains some of the beta versions of products our company is developing. Try them on."

Coach Novich put on the glasses and jumped in surprise. He saw a sparring robot that looked strikingly real standing before him, poised in an aggressive fighting stance like a wild beast. The sight made him reel backward, but he quickly realized, "Is this CG?"

"Exactly!" Xiang Shan spread his arms wide, "As I said, the real key isn’t the robot, but the AI. Of course, a steel body for the AI is fine, but you can also give it a virtual model. The effect is the same."

"Of course, the only downside is that you can’t physically feel the AI, which isn’t as intuitive. But believe me, if it used Ali’s evasive techniques as a template, most people wouldn’t be able to feel the robot through touch anyway. At least for evasion training, there’s no difference between CG and steel."

Coach Novich exclaimed, "This is incredible!"

"By the way, it can serve as professional training equipment or as a motion-sensing game," said Xiang Shan. "By spending the usual amount of money for a common game, you get professional training software. That’s an opportunity no boxer would want to miss, right?"

Coach Novich laughed bitterly, "Then the game surely won’t sell. Ordinary people won’t ever bump into those professional fighters."

"Of course, there are different AIs. This is a collaborative project, with Action Master involved in the production. They’ll be responsible for developing an AI that adjusts to the player’s level," Xiang Shan explained. "In action games, AM is a pro. Later, when people buy it, regular players can set their own game AI, pros can use Boxing King AI, and internally, we’ve even suggested making the core game free with premium features."

"Action Master?"

"A gaming company, famous for their action games," said Xiang Shan. "I hold a considerable share in that company, so I can get them to do some collaboration projects."

"For example, a few years back, AM released several fighting games. The packaging and user agreement stated that when playing these games, a portion of the players’ computing resources would be tasked with our company’s research projects. Our company would also share some AI technology with AM.

"Additionally, AM can independently release some ’youth versions’ of their games, cutting out the parts supported by our technology, which would cost a little more but wouldn’t require the players to provide computing resources to us."

Xiang Shan smiled, "Our company is in dire need of computing resources. But rather than spending a lot on supercomputers, it’s more cost-effective to acquire distributed computing resources like this. From that perspective, buying shares in AM... ahem, I mean ’mortgaging’ AM’s player resources, is well worth it."

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